She'll want to wear them all the time--"
"Of course, she can't, Bronson. She isn't as silly as to think she
can."
"Perhaps not, sir." Bronson opened his lips and shut them again.
"There's something else, sir," he said, after a pause. "I've found out
that she's giving the General things to drink."
"Hilda?" Derry said, incredulously. "Oh, surely not, Bronson, The
Doctor has given her strict orders--."
"She's got a bottle behind the books, and she pours him a glass right
after dinner, and another before he goes to sleep, and--and--you know
he'd sell his soul for the stuff, Mr. Derry."
Derry did know. It had been the shame of all his youthful years that
his father should stoop to subterfuge, to falsehood, to everything that
was foreign to his native sense of honor and honesty, for a taste of
that which his abnormal appetite demanded.
"If anyone had told me but you, Bronson, I wouldn't have believed it."
"I didn't want to tell you, but I had to. You can see that, can't you,
sir?"
"Yes. But how in the world did she know where the diamonds were?"
"He gave her his key one day when I was there--made me get it off his
ring.
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